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Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

thewaltdisneycompany.com

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Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#91

Post by 001sky »

Steko wrote: post #84
001sky wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simple: Because the strategy is to keep Apple out of the content biz, as owners. It keeps Apple as a customer , while the TV/Cable's themselves vertically integrate. This sets up the Tv/Cable-co's to to extract rents. Now Disney a Pixar, Lucas ESPN, et al; Comcast Universal & NBC. This Apple TV?...etc.

I seriously doubt that Apple wants to be in the content biz any more than they already are with their first party apps. I'd guess Steve was fairly cognizant of the fact that the decline of Sony was directly related to their media acquisitions in the late 80's. When the media people get seats at the big table you develop an institutional hostility to the sorts of disruptive devices that Apple wants to build and Sony u…

The relevant point is that Sony was not a distribution platform/network, and Apple is. And ESPN is mission critical for all cable platforms, so Dis ~by proxy, if not outright.

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#92

Post by jellicle »

tptacek wrote: post #58
Firehed wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet it would seem that Disney has a lot more to lose if IP laws are not kept in their favor, as evidenced by the Life+70 copyright extension they were able to successfully lobby into existence. Google and Disney clearly have two very different set of influences, but to imply that Disney has little control is simply wrong. Ultimately the buck stops with our various representatives, but Disney has some serious skin in…

I think this is orthogonal to the argument that I responded to upthread. The idea I responded to is that by rolling up so much of our popular culture, Disney has reached a point where it bears some kind of responsibility for vouchsafing our culture. Strong disagree: just like buying OMGPOP didn't reward Zynga with a mortal lock on the market for iPhone games, buying up the most popular media properties won't reward D…

Really? tectonic made all those arguments in one sentence, huh? Or did you just invent that?

Every American sits and stares passively at ABC television for about 6 hours per week, every week. It's totally silly to suggest that that could have any effect on culture though, right?

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#93

Post by joshAg »

philwelch wrote: post #46
tectonic wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Therefore, it should be noted that they directly, or via tacit gatekeeping, have a huge amount of influence on our public dialog and cultural messaging.

Fortunately, corporations are pretty shitty at deliberately pushing a cultural agenda. I dare you to find a consistent agenda in any media conglomerate's output.

Well, Fox has a pretty consistent message, as does MSNBC. Newscorp as a whole also has a pretty well controlled message.

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#94

Post by saraid216 »

stcredzero wrote: post #73
brudgers wrote: post #67

For those fretting the future, it will be hard for Disney to fuck up the franchise more than Lucas did with The Phantom Menace. http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/star-wars-episo...

How about a reboot of episodes 1-3?

I'm feeling "too soon" on that.

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#95

Post by tptacek »

jlgreco wrote: post #80
philwelch wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? I'm not being sarcastic at all. Please share. EDIT: Despite Fox News, the Fox network broadcasts left-leaning shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad, which regularly mock Fox News. 20th Century Fox distributes a lot of films without any discernable agenda[1], even backing films like Avatar, or the Wall Street sequel. I'm convinced that News Corporation is entirely mercenary in its agenda and on…

Pretty much all of them seem fairly consistently "pro establishment". Sure you'll see a lot of inconsistency in left vs right wing politics coming out of most companies in this class, but the underlying message is pretty damn uniform.

Uniformity is comforting. The alternative is challenging. These are billion-dollar properties: they survive based on mass appeal. What's the mass media property that doesn't capitalize in some way on the status quo? What are you really asking for here? A version of Mulan where the heroine dies in a hail of arrows? The Suite Life With Zack And Cody's Meth Habit? Even The Daily Show only works as entertainment because it has mass entertainment to feed off of.

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#98

Post by tptacek »

jellicle wrote: post #92
tptacek wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is orthogonal to the argument that I responded to upthread. The idea I responded to is that by rolling up so much of our popular culture, Disney has reached a point where it bears some kind of responsibility for vouchsafing our culture. Strong disagree: just like buying OMGPOP didn't reward Zynga with a mortal lock on the market for iPhone games, buying up the most popular media properties won't reward D…

Really? tectonic made all those arguments in one sentence, huh? Or did you just invent that? Every American sits and stares passively at ABC television for about 6 hours per week, every week. It's totally silly to suggest that that could have any effect on culture though, right?

Yes, I think it's pretty silly to suggest that the average 6 hours of ABC television consumption is providing Disney with much control over our culture. ABC is led by the culture, not the other way around; that's why it (sort of) makes money for Disney.

Think about it with an analogy. Google is more valuable than Facebook, despite the huge amount of time people spend engaged with Facebook, because Google's users come to the site with a task that inherently equates with purchasing intent. It is possible to capture a great deal of people's attention without changing their decisionmaking process.

I dispute that there are many judgements people make that use Disney media properties as a resource. The Internet is already a far more influential force on our culture than any mass-media property is.

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#99

Post by aik »

tptacek wrote: post #37
tectonic wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Therefore, it should be noted that they directly, or via tacit gatekeeping, have a huge amount of influence on our public dialog and cultural messaging.

Marvel, Pixar, LucasArts, ABC, ESPN, A+E, Disney Channel, and associated merchandising. I'm not sure how much "control" over our "public dialog" this really implies. I'm the parent of two very normal middle aged children and, while they're certainly exposed to some of this IP, I'd contest that it has much "influence" over them. Google has much more control over our public dialog than Disney does.

Do they watch any content from any of those groups/companies?

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#100

Post by rsync »

mariusmg wrote: post #40

It means they bought LucasArts too. Not that LucasArts were great in the last decade or so but Disney sucks as a "parent" for game dev companies (RIP Blackrock).

On the other hand, a pixar-enhanced reboot of DOTT ... now you're talking ...
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